MMA Personalities News - Page 36

Do you have a hot MMA story or news item that you have found and would like to share?
Then read our guidelines then post it to our MMA News Share Forum to have it display here for the community to read on this page.

MMA Manager Ed Soares has been named the new president of Resurrection Fighting Alliance. Soares confirmed the news with MMAFighting.com on Tuesday.
Soares, who manages the likes of Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida and the Nogueira brothers, will continue to manage his stable of fighters, along with his partner Jorge Guimaraes.
"We still have a management business," Soares said. "This announcement has no bearing on anything.
"I'm not relieving any of my responsibilities as a manager, I'm just taking on a little more responsibility elsewhere."
Soares noted that if a fighter he represents would be courted by RFA in the future Guimaraes will negotiate the deal with the promotion and he will remove himself from the equation.
"I'm really excited to step into another chapter of a my life," Soares said. "I come from a promotional background from running various promotions, and I'm excited to get back in there."

Recently-axed UFC fighter Jason "Mayhem" Miller was arrested today in Orange County, TMZ has learned -- after allegedly breaking into a church, spraying a fire extinguisher all over the place, and getting buck naked.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, the O.C. Sheriff's Office received a call early this morning from the Mission Hills Church in Mission Viejo about a possible burglary in progress.
When the deputies arrived, we're told they found the first and second floors covered in white fire extinguisher spray. Cops say the place was also trashed -- scattered CDs, books, and broken pictures.
When officers reached the second floor, we're told they found Miller naked on some couch -- totally awake and coherent...

The UFC light heavyweight champion has signed a sweeping, worldwide sponsorship deal with sports apparel giant Nike, MMA Fighting has confirmed with multiple sources.
The two sides have agreed to a multi-year contract that will see Jones decked out in Nike gear for the foreseeable future. On Sept. 1, when he faces Dan Henderson at UFC 151, Jones will be rocking the famous "Swoosh."
As a part of the deal, Jones will be featured on worldwide Nike advertising and receive his own signature line, sources said. It is expected to be announced within a week.

Internal tensions in Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua’s camp have caused a rift between him and his older brother Murilo ‘Ninja’.
Since his first days of competition, Ninja has always been in the corner when Shogun fights but he was absent for the weekend’s bout against Brandon Vera, which headlined UFC on FOX 4. The reason is Andrea Dida, Shogun’s head coach. Ninja does not like him and does not agree with his training methods, nor the way that he coaches.
“Guys, I was not with Mauricio in this fight because I have a problem with Dida. I do not agree with the way he corners and drills him,” he wrote on Twitter at the weekend, responding to queries about his absence...

As expected Jon Jones has avoided jail time following his May 19 arrest on a misdemeanor DWI charge.
The UFC light-heavyweight champion today was issued a $1,000 fine and six-month license suspension. He also will have ignition interlocks installed on his vehicles, and he needs to complete a victim-impact panel.
"Blessed to still have the full support of Broom County/all my fans and my DWI case officially behind me," Jones tweeted soon after the sentencing. "Moving forward."
Binghamton (N.Y.) City Court Judge Daniel L. Seiden sentenced Jones, according to pressconnects.com.
On July 3, Jones appeared in Binghamton (N.Y.) City Court to ask for more time to complete a drug and alcohol abuse program, MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) recently reported. The sentencing then was pushed back to today...

There’s probably no quicker way to illicit a response from a fighter than to call them ‘amateur’ or ‘a joke’, especially when those words are coming from a manager and not another competitor.
The strong statement came from Jorge Guimaraes, who is a co-manager of UFC middleweight king Anderson Silva, when speaking to Tatame.com about the prospects hoping to next face his fighter in the Octagon.
“That’s a big joke,” Guimaraes said about Chris Weidman and his fellow middleweight contenders. “Anderson has the biggest paycheck in the UFC and you can’t promote and event with these amateur kids that are coming up now.”
Needless to say Weidman didn’t take too kindly to Guimaraes’ words about him or the other top ten middleweights vying to face Silva in the cage...

You can say what you want about Michael Bisping, but the guy sure knows how to sell a fight.
With two months remaining until Bisping returns to action at UFC 152 to face decorated Marine turned middleweight contender Brian Stann, the brash Brit is already doing his part to make their co-main event fight the biggest thing on the upcoming card in Toronto.
So big in fact that Bisping believes their bout is the real headliner and not the 125lb title fight between Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson.
“In my opinion, and I think in most people’s, this is the main event. This is the real main event. Two big hard hitting guys. No one cares about little flyweights, this is the real main event, this is the real big fight, tune in cause someone’s getting knocked out, ain’t going to be me though,” said Bisping when speaking to Fuel TV on Saturday.
“This is the real main event of UFC 152.”

MMA veteran Sherman Pendergarst passed away this morning after a two-year fight with rectal and colon cancer. He was 45.
"He always cared for others more than himself," Pendergarst coach Pat Miletich today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) via text. "He told me a few months ago that he had lived a great life and reached his goals and was at peace."
Pendergarst made a lone octagon appearance at UFC 65, where he lost to Antoni Hardonk. The former heavyweight and light heavyweight also made a lone appearance for Bellator and fought current UFC fighter Joey Beltran at Bellator 5 in May 2009. His overall professional record was 11-18, though he faced many big-show vets, including Shane Carwin, during his seven-year career.
Not even his illness could keep him from competing. He fought just five months ago at a local event in Fargo, N.D., while still suffering from the effects of cancer...

In this past week's podcast, Ian "Uncle Creepy" McCall told us that the UFC does not want to match the consensus #3 and #4 fighters in the UFC flyweight division against eachother.
Apparently because McCall is coming off a loss, and Dodson a win; the UFC brass don't see the match-up as one they want. McCall told us that we would take a fight against Louis Gaudinot, the next best flyweight in the UFC.
Obviously, the 125-lb division needs bolstering in the UFC. Kind of disappointed the UFC doesn't want to match Creepy with Dodson.
(Interview about 1:00:00 in)

Going into today's UFC 148 conference call, I wasn't sure what to expect from Anderson Silva. In fact, I wasn't sure if I should expect Silva to participate in the call at all.
I heard a rumor over the weekend that Silva would not be doing any more public relations work for this fight and, as such, would not be involved in the call today at all.
Instead, what we got was a fired-up Anderson Silva unlike any we've ever seen before.
A few choice quotes from Silva's conference call:
"I'm going to break every bone in his face and all of the teeth in his mouth.
He's a criminal that doesn't even deserve to be in the UFC. I am going to beat his ass out of the UFC. He will never want to fight again once I'm done with him.
What I'm going to do to Chael will change the image of the sport. I'm going to break his arms, his legs and every one of his teeth.
I'm going to beat him the way his parents should have beaten him."

"According to Jose Aldo's manager and trainer, Andre Pederneiras of Nova Uniao, they're expecting him to be back in October. No surgery needed for that left leg, just some physical therapy, and they're very hopeful he'll be back in October. His opponent, whenever he is ready, will be Erik Koch."

People keep asking Wanderlei Silva how many more fights he has left in him. As if he knows. As if his body and his career are like a cell phone battery, buzzing every so often to let him know he’s down to the final 20 percent, then the final ten.
"I feel good," he told MMA Fighting in a phone interview. "I train good. I go with the young guys I have here. I feel very good, but I train for one fight at a time. For how long? I don’t know, but the performance is going to tell. That will show whether I can still fight or not."
Maybe it’s fitting that he should be facing Franklin, who keeps giving the same answer to the same question. It’s not as if a win will vault either into immediate title contention. It’s also not as it either of them needs another title in order to consider his career a success. They could both quit whenever they want to and walk away with their heads held high. But then, neither of them wants to. They’re still having too much fun.

Unofficially, Rich Franklin sees his UFC 147 main event matchup with Wanderlei Silva as his return to the middleweight division, even though the duo will only have to step on the scale and hit 190 pounds in order to make their fight official. The catch weight stipulation was a concession to Franklin taking the bout on short notice and having to travel from Singapore to the US to Brazil in the interim.
Just days from the fight, Franklin believes he could have made 185 pounds, and when he does the next time, it will be his first time at the weight since April 2008. After moving to light-heavyweight, Franklin has gone 3-3, though two of those fights are notably at 195-pound catch weights.
"I really don't have an opinion one way or another," he said. "I know originally, the UFC had the five weight classes and they were trying to avoid having so many champions that people would lose track of them, much like what happened with boxing. There are so many weight class champions that you can't name half of the belt-holders in the sport of boxing, and I think the UFC was somewhat trying to avoid that. With time, we've put in these smaller weight classes, so there are so many more weight classes that definitely, an argument could be made for a 195-pound weight class."

"There is so many guys out there right now to fight. I just need to get a good fight against somebody, top 10 or top 15. Now that B.J. (Penn) is back, that would be fun to settle that finally, but, I don't think he wants a piece of me so he is going after young guys."

When asked if he thought "Baby J" was "ducking" him, Fitch simply stated:

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was supposed to have his day in court on Tuesday for sentences related to DWI charges. The sentencing has been pushed back to July 3, according to Stephen Reilly on PressConnects.com.

“They offered Glover for us. I talked with my team and we decided that Glover would not be interesting right now. Glover is a top fighter, I know him, I respect him. But he just got into the UFC and he has only one fight in the UFC. He needs to get more fights. I had nothing to gain with that fight.
“We said to the UFC that for now this fight is not interesting to me. After that the UFC offered me Brandon Vera. But the UFC has never thought to cut me nor have I thought to leave the UFC. I’ve never picked my opponents. I’ve fought against the best and I want to keep doing it, to get my chance for the title.
“For sure Glover is a top fighter but today if I beat him then I would gain nothing so we decided to refuse this fight. But in the future, it can happen.”

It started in 2006 when Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, purchased both the World Fighting Alliance (WFA) and World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC).
The plan for the WFA was to secure certain fighters, most notably Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, who would soon appear in the UFC, and Carlos Condit, who was then moved over to the WEC.

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and his team are done talking about UFC 149 and Glover Teixeira.
Less than a week after UFC president Dana White said on the UFC on FX 3 post-fight show that Rua told him he would rather be cut from the UFC rather than fight Teixeira at UFC 149, his manager Julio Heller told MMAFighting.com that they would have no further comment on the situation...

Tito Ortiz will call it a career at UFC 148, but before he faces Forrest Griffin in the cage he will be honored as the ninth person inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.
UFC president Dana White confirmed the news to MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday.

A heated argument early Saturday morning in a Wynn hotel room led to the arrest of UFC Octagon Girl Arianny Celeste and her boyfriend, Metro Police said.
Celeste, 26, whose real name is Arianny Lopez, and her boyfriend, 34-year-old Praveen Chandra, each were arrested on a count of battery domestic violence, according to arrest reports released Tuesday.
A Wynn employee heard a crashing sound from a room and saw Lopez come running out of the room shortly after 4:30 a.m., the reports state.
Lopez told police her boyfriend choked her and grabbed her right arm during an argument about text messages, the reports said. Officers noted that Lopez had scratches on her right arm.
Detectives interviewed Chandra who said Lopez kicked him in the nose in a limousine, where the argument started, the reports said.